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Noting Differences Eases Conflict DIFFERENCES IN NATIONALITY, ethnicity, income, social status, and age have often been sources of ten- sion within a group. But two researchers at Canada's University of Toronto in Ottawa find that such differ- ences can actually serve to encourage unity within a group, under the right circumstances. The Rotman School of Management's Geoffrey Leonardelli, a professor of management and psychol- ogy, and Soo Min Toh, a professor of management, conducted two field studies of the relations between local and foreign co-workers. They found that local employees were more likely to share work-related and cultural information with expatriate co-workers when they consciously recognized that their co-workers lacked knowledge about and comfort with local culture and customs. With that recognition, the local workers realized they were experts who could provide their co-workers with the help and information they needed to accli- Taylor, assistant professor of accounting at North Caro- lina State University's Poole College of Management in Raleigh, will collaborate with BetterInvesting, a nonprofit association serving the indi- vidual investor, for the sur- vey. The project's goal, she adds, is to discover whether corporations can improve the way they communicate risk factors to investors. The survey is part of research Taylor is conducting with Jennifer Blaskovich, assistant professor of accounting at the University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Business Administration. Preliminary results should be available this spring. n ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE MIDEAST The American University of Beirut in Lebanon has mate to their new country, Leonardelli says. "We find that group-based differences can actually encourage cooperation," he adds. However, for this cooperation to happen, the locals also must perceive a sense of social jus- tice within their organizations. If bosses play favorites, any sense of cooperation will evaporate, the researchers empha- size. They extrapolate their findings to practices such as racial profiling by security officers and law enforcement, which may only worsen race relations by fueling distrust within both groups. "Group-based differences often cre- ate an 'us versus them' mentality," says Toh. "However, we found that when employees felt that they were treated fairly by their employers, group-based differences were more likely to manifest as an 'us and them' mentality." Find "Fair Treatment and Social Cat- egorization" at www.rotman.utoronto. ca/newthinking/fairtreatment.pdf. Geoffrey Leonardelli Soo Min Toh opened the Samih Darwazah Centre for Innovation Man- agement and Entrepreneur- ship to conduct research, field studies, and bench- marking studies. The center also will offer seminars, workshops, and conferences related to innovative busi- ness practices. n SOCIETY FOR EFFECTUATION The Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Inno- vation at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business in Charlottesville has created the Society for Effectual Action and a related online community, effectuation.org. Created by Darden professor Saras Sarasvathy and several of her colleagues, the society and community will focus on effectuation, a study of entrepreneurship that holds that an individual entrepre- neur's path should depend on his or her personality, knowledge, and network, rather than on a predeter- mined sequence of actions. The Web-based community will include links to research and articles, a directory of researchers, forums for exchanges, and teaching materials. BizEd May/June 2011 67 PIXTAL/GLOW IMAGES